by Wil McCarthy
Collapson (n) A cubic structure of eight neuble-mass black holes in sympathetic pseudo-zitterbewegung vibration. The most stable collapsons measure 2.3865791101 centimeters edge to edge.
Collapson node (n) A neuble-mass black hole that is part of a collapson.
Componeer (n) Any person bearing royal certification in gravitic engineering. Descended from late U.S. Army Corps of Engineers training standards.
Converge (also Reconverge) (v) To combine two separate entities, or two copies of the same entity, using a fax machine. In practice, rarely applied except to humans.
Copy-hour (n) One hour’s labor from a single instantiation of an individual. A standard human resource measure during the Queendom era.
Corona (n) The deep, sparse, superhot “upper atmosphere” of a star, responsible for most X-ray emissions. Variable in size with the solar “seasons,” the corona of Sol extends 5 to 10 light-seconds above the chromopause, at near-vacuum densities.
Datavore (n) Any rogue autonomous software capable of inhabiting telecommunications networks. Several distinct phyla are known to have existed in the Iscog prior to its demise.
Declarant (n) The highest title accorded by the Queendom of Sol; descended from the Tongan award of Nopélé, or knighthood. Only twenty-nine declarancies were ever issued.
Desaturation (n) In sailing, the firing of rocket thrusters to balance cumulative attitude errors absorbed by reaction momentum wheels.
Di-clad (adj) Sheathed in an outer layer of monocrystalline diamond.
Disassembler fog (n) A suspension of microscopic deconstruction mechanisms, sometimes employed in the recycling of objects too large to fax.
Downsystem (adv) Toward the sun.
Electrogravitic (adj) Synonym for electromagnetic.
Electromagnetic grapple See Grapple, electromagnetic.
Ertial (adj) Antonym of inertial, applied to inertially shielded devices. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.
Fax (n) Abbreviated form of “facsimile.” A device for reproducing physical objects from stored or transmitted data patterns. By the time of the Restoration, faxing of human beings had become possible, and with the advent of collapsiter-based telecommunications soon afterward, the reliable transmission of human patterns quickly became routine.
Faxware (n) Anything produced by a fax machine. Colloquially, the control systems and filters employed by the Iscog.
Feigenbaum, Mitchell (prop. n) American physicist-laureate of the Late Modern era.
Feigenbaum’s number (n) Physical constant with the dimensionless value 4.6692016090, representing the rational spacing of frequency doublings along any relevant axis of a system in chaotic transition. See Appendix A: Feigenbaum’s number, this page
Fibe-op (n, adj) Abbreviated form of “fiber optic.” Any thin, flexible conduit for the transmission of visible light.
Fibrediamond (n) Composite material of whiskered crystalline carbon in a resin matrix. Unless sheathed in a superreflective coating, fibrediamond is notably flammable.
Flatspace Society, the (prop. n) Queendom-era lobbying organization dedicated to the prohibition of collapsium.
Ghost (n) Any electromagnetic trace preserved in rock. Colloquially, a visual image of past events, especially involving deceased persons.
Ghosting (n) The process by which a ghost is formed.
Girona (prop. n) A minor city in the El Gironès comarque of Catalonia, situated at the confluence of the Ter, Güell, Galligants, and Onyar rivers, some 80 kilometers from the nation’s former capital at Barcelona.
Grapple, electromagnetic (n) An industrial gravity projector specifically intended to anchor or manipulate massive objects.
Grappleship (n) A vehicle propelled by means of electromagnetic grapples. Use of grappleships was considered impractical in the Queendom until the advent of ertial shielding, though high-powered inertial devices were capable of attaining enormous accelerations.
Gravity laser (n) A gravity projector whose emissions are coherent, i.e., monochromatic and phase-locked. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.
Gravity projector (n) A revpic-driven device for simulating the secondary fields emitted by charged particles under zitterbewegung vibration. Attributed to Boyle Schmenton.
Haisch, Bernhard (prop. n) American physicist-laureate of the Old Modern era.
Haisch effect (n) The increase in “mass” experienced by an object—usually a subatomic particle—under vibration at gravitic frequencies.
Hawking, Stephen (prop. n) British physicist-laureate of the Old Modern era.
Hawking radiation (n) Photon and particle emissions of a hypermassive object, resulting from Heisenberg tunneling across the event horizon.
Holie (n) Abbreviated form of “hologram.” Any three-dimensional image. Colloquially, a projected, dynamic three-dimensional image, or device for producing same.
Hypercollapsite (n) A quasicrystalline material composed of neuble-mass black holes. Usually organized as a vacuogel.
Hypercomputer (n) Any computing device capable of altering its internal layout. Colloquially, a computing device made of wellstone.
Hypercondensed (adj) Condensed to the point of gravitational collapse, i.e., until a black hole or “hypermass” is formed. Colloquially, condensed to any level the speaker finds impressive. Also “hypercompressed.”
Hypermass (n) A mass that has been hypercompressed; a black hole.
Immorbid (adj) Not subject to life-threatening disease or deterioration.
Impervium (n) Public-domain wellstone substance; the hardest superreflector known. Attributed to Marlon Sykes.
Instantiate (v) To produce a single instance of a person or object; to fax from a stored or received pattern.
Iscog (n) An acronym for the Inner-System Collapsiter Grid. The first broadband interplanetary telecom network capable of transmitting live human patterns. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.
Isotropic (adj) Exactly the same in all directions. A theoretical construct which may not occur in nature, although the zero-point field is often regarded as isotropic.
Kataki ha’u o’ kai Traditional Tongan encouragement to begin a meal. Literally translated as, “Please come and eat.”
Kuiper Belt (n) A ring-shaped region in the ecliptic plane of any solar system, in which gravitational perturbations have amplified the concentration of large, icy bodies or “comets.” Sol’s Kuiper Belt extends from 40 AU at its lower boundary to 1,000 AU at its upper and has an overall density approximately one-fourth that of its much smaller Asteroid Belt.
Laminar (adj) Completely predictable by closed-form equations. A theoretical construct that does not occur in nature but is extremely useful as an approximation. Most dynamic systems are considered to have a laminar range. (Literally: “layered.”)
Laureate (n) An honor bestowed by the Queendom for extraordinary service. Descended from the Nobel citation of Swedish monarchy in the Old Modern era.
Lepton (n) A member of the class of low-rest-mass, spin ½ “elementary particles” or charge-zpf resonance states that include the neutrino, electron, muon, and tau. Leptons are not subject to the hypothetical “strong nuclear force” of quantum-age physics.
Light-hour (n) The distance traveled by light through a standard vacuum in one hour. Equal to 3,600 light-seconds, or 1,079,252,848,8 kilometers.
Light-second (n) The distance traveled by light through a standard vacuum in one second: 299,792.46 kilometers.
Lithosphere (n) The rocky outer crust of a terrestrial planet, composed primarily of silicon dioxide.
Lorentz-invariant (adj) Exactly the same at all velocities. The zero-point field is thought to be Lorentz-invariant.
Malo e lelei Traditional Tongan greeting, widely used within the Queendom. Literally translated as, “Thank you, hello.”
Meson (n) member of the class of high-rest-mass, integerspin particles that include the pion, kaon, rho, omega, eta, psi, B, and D. Mesons are composed of a quark-antiquark pair, and are subject to the hypothetic
al “strong nuclear force” of quantum-age physics.
Milligee (n) One one-thousandth of the acceleration experienced by a body at rest on either pole of Earth’s reference ellipsoid (i.e., 1⁄1000 of one gee); 0.0098202 meters per second squared.
Monocrystalline (adj) Composed of a single crystal, without seams and, ideally, without flaws. Sometimes used colloquially as a term of admiration.
Morbidity filter (n) One of dozens of software filters applied to human patterns in the Iscog, intended to eliminate mortality by disease and age-related deterioration. Attributed to Ernst Krogh.
Muon (n) An unstable lepton possessing charge +1 and mass 1⁄9 that of a proton, with a half-life of 10–6 seconds.
Nanoassembler (n) Any device capable of assembling objects at the atomic level. Most nanoassemblers (e.g., the standard fax machine) are of macroscopic size.
Nasen (n or adj) An acronym for “neutrino amplification through stimulated emission.” A coherent neutrino beam sometimes employed for interplanetary communication thanks to its extremely small divergence angle. However, the difficulty of generating such a beam, plus its ready interactions with matter, limit its usefulness.
Nescog (n) Successor to the Iscog; a high-bandwidth telecommunications network employing numerous supraluminal signal shunts.
Neuble (n) A di-clad neutronium sphere, explosively formed, usually incorporating one or more layers of wellstone for added strength and versatility. A standard industrial neuble masses one billion metric tons, with a radius of 2.67 centimeters.
Neutronium (n) Matter that has been supercondensed, crushing nuclear protons and orbital electron shells together into a mass of neutrons. Unstable except at very high pressures. Any quantity of neutronium may be considered a single atomic nucleus; however, under most conditions the substance will behave as a fluid.
Piezoelectric (adj) Describes a substance, often crystalline, that produces a voltage when pressure is applied to it, or which experiences mechanical deformation in response to a voltage.
Perihelion (n) The point of an orbit that lies closest to the sun.
Petajoule (n) 1015 joules or watt-seconds. A measure of energy equivalent to the vaporization of 2.985 million tons of liquid water at boiling point.
Philander (n) A title granted to formal consorts of the Queen of All Things. Only four Philanders were ever named.
Photopause (n) The irregular, granulated “surface” of a star.
Photosphere (n) The hot, opaque, convectively stable plasma layer of a star beginning at the photopause, responsible for most thermal and visible emissions. Usually less than 1000 kilometers deep, with temperatures of several thousand kelvins and the approximate pressure of Earth’s stratosphere. The photosphere floats atop the deep hydrogen convection zones of the stellar interior.
Picosecond (n) 10–12 seconds; a measure of time roughly equivalent to the vacuum travel of light across a gap of 0.3 millimeters.
Pion (n) An unstable, spin-zero meson possessing 1⁄9 the mass and + 1, 0, or –1 times the charge of a proton, and a half-life of 2.6×10–8 seconds.
Plibble (n) Fruit of the plibble tree. Origin unknown.
Pseudoatom (n) The organization of electrons into Schrödinger orbitals and pseudo-orbitals, made possible with great precision in a designer quantum dot. The properties of pseudoatoms do not necessarily mimic those of natural atoms.
Pseudochemistry (n) Electron shell interactions taking place among pseudoatoms, or between pseudoatoms and natural atomic matter.
Quantum well (n) A semiconductor designed to trap electrons in a two-dimensional layer thin enough for wave behavior to overwhelm particle behavior. The equivalent one-dimensional structure is a quantum wire. The nanoscopic, zero-dimensional equivalent is a quantum dot, capable of trapping electrons in pseudoatomic orbitals.
Quod erat demonstrandum Latin: “which was to be proved.”
Random (adj) Aperiodic and nondeterministic; a condition in which any point, state, or member of a system, group, or set has an equal probability of being sampled. Colloquially, any system, group, or set whose forward characteristics are difficult to compute. Randomness is a hypothetical construct that does not occur in nature.
Reportant (n) A person or mechanism gathering information for public distribution.
Restoration, the (n) Interglobal election that established the Queendom of Sol under Tamra I. The term derives from the presumption that monarchy is the “natural” state of human beings, owing to a genetic predisposition.
Revpic (n) An acronym for “relativistically vibrating, parainfinite, Charged.” The word “plate” is generally presumed, and indicates a thin, rigid sheet of wellstone that serves as the primary component of a gravity projector.
Ring Collapsiter (prop. n) The first supraluminal signal shunt, intended to be part of the Iscog. Attributed to Marlon Sykes.
Sol (prop. n) Formal name for the Earth’s sun, derived from the Latin. The Greek Helios was considered archaic for most Queendom uses.
Superabsorber (n) Any material capable of absorbing 100% of incident light in a given wavelength band. The only known universal superabsorber (i.e., functioning at all wavelengths) is the event horizon of a hypermass. (Approximations of 100% absorption are generally referred to as “black.”)
Supercondensed (adj) Condensed to the point of proton-electron recombination, i.e., until neutronium is formed. Colloquially, condensed to any point the speaker finds impressive.
Superconductor (n) Any material capable of passing electron pairs with zero resistance. (Approximations of zero resistance are generally referred to as “conductors.”)
Supercooled (n) Cooled below the point of an expected phase transition, typically the freezing point of a liquid. Colloquially, cooled to any point the speaker finds impressive.
Superreflector (n) Any material capable of reflecting 100% of incident light in a given wavelength band. No universal superreflectors are known. (Approximations of 100% reflectance are generally referred to as “mirrors.”)
Supervacuum (n) A state of vacuum in which some wavelengths of the zero-point field have been suppressed or excluded. Since the speed of light is a function of vacuum energy, supervacuum is useful for the transmission of matter and information at supraluminal velocities.
Supraluminal (adj) Exceeding the standard vacuum speed of light.
Telegravitic (adj) Involving gravity projectors.
Telerobotic (adj) Controlled from afar. Rarely applied except to machines.
Terraform ash (n) A wellstone substance of shifting composition, intended to provoke pseudochemical reactions in a planetary atmosphere. Also known as “wellstone flake.”
Tonga (n) Former Polynesian kingdom consisting of the Tongatapu, Ha’apai, and Vava’u archipelagos, and scattered islands occasionally including parts of Fiji. Tonga was the only Polynesian nation never to be conquered or colonized by a foreign power, and was the last human monarchy prior to establishment of the Queendom of Sol.
Tongatapu (n) The largest and most populous island of Tonga; home to its traditional capital at Nuku’alofa.
True Vacuum (n) A hypothetical state of vacuum in which all zpf wavelenths are excluded or suppressed.
Turbulent (adj) The mathematical state between laminar and hypothetical “random” activity. Any condition in which the motion of a point varies rapidly.
Upsystem (adv) Away from the sun.
Vacougel (n) Any fibrous or spongy substance consisting mostly of empty space.
Vacuum (n, adj) The default state of spacetime in the absence of charge. On stochastic average, half the available photon states of a standard vacuum are filled.
Wellstone (n) A substance consisting of fine, semiconductive fibers alternating with quantum dots, capable of emulating a broad range of natural, artificial, and hypothetical materials. See Appendix A: Wellstone, this page.
Wellwood (n) An emulation of lignous cellulose (wood), often employed as the default state of wellstone devices.
&nbs
p; Zero-point field (zpf) (n) Technical name for the isotropic, Lorentz-invariant energy field of the vacuum’s half-filled photon states. When interacting with point charges, the zero-point field gives rise to fourth-dimensional spacetime curvature which creates the illusion of mass, gravity, and inertia in the three-dimensional universe.
Zitterbewegung (n) The “trembling motion” of charged particles interacting with the zero-point field. Zitterbewegung creates the secondary fields or spacetime curvatures associated with gravity and inertia.
appendix c
technical notes
Many readers will be unfamiliar with the physical/cosmological theories on which this story is based, and may find the apparent contradictions jarring. Research into zero-point fields and forces has produced a growing and quite impressive body of literature that, as of this writing, has received little attention outside the astrophysics community. The situation vis-à-vis “quantum-dot” technology is somewhat better, though the implications may still sound a bit magical to some.
The gravitational theories that gave birth to this book are some of the most fascinating and cutting-edge science being performed today. As far as I know, “collapsium” is my own invention, although I’ve since encountered the word in different context in a couple of places. For helping deduce and refine the mechanism by which collapsium could actually work, I’m deeply indebted to Drs. Richard M. Powers, the Right Reverend Gary E. Snyder, Bjorn Ostman, Boris Gudiken, Arthur C. Clarke, and especially Bernhard Haisch of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto.